ill, but Sir Hugh only laughed at
him; there was nothing the matter, he said, carelessly; he was tough,
like all the Redmonds, and he had never been ill in his life. If he
only slept better he should be all right, but want of sleep plays the
very deuce with a man, and so on.

"If I were you, I should not touch spirits or narcotics," observed
Erle, quietly; "your nerves are a little out of order. You should take
things more easily, and not sit up so late; one can form the habit of
sleep." But Hugh only scoffed at the notion of nerves, and during his
long visit Erle saw little improvement.

He was thankful, and yet puzzled, to see that Fay did not notice the
sad change in her husband. Now and then she would say to him rather
timidly, as though she feared a rebuff, "You are not quite well
to-day, are you, Hugh? Your hand is so hot and dry; do stay quietly
with me this morning, and I will read you to sleep;" but Hugh only
laughed at her anxious face.

"Run away, my pet, for I am busy," he would answer. "If you want a
companion, here is this idle fellow, Erle, who never did a stroke of
work in his life, I believe;" and Fay would go away reluctantly.

Erle had already grown very confidential with Fay. In her gentle way
she took him to task for his desultory life. Erle owned his faults
very frankly; it was quite true, he said, that he had not
distinguished himself at the university, and had been chiefly known
there as a boating man; but he had been extremely popular in his
college. "It is all very well," he grumbled, as he sat in Fay's
boudoir that morning, talking to her in his usual idle fashion. "What
is a fellow to do with his life; perhaps you can tell me that? Uncle
ought to have let me make the grand tour, and then I could have
enlarged my mind. Ah, yes! every fellow wants change," as Fay smiled
at this; "what does a little salmon-fishing in Norway signify; or a
month at the Norfolk Broads?--that is all I had last year. Uncle talks
of the Engadine and the Austrian Tyrol next summer, but he travels _en
grand seigneur_, and that is such a bore."

Erle was perfectly willing to describe his life at Belgrave House to
Fay. She was a shrewd little person in her way, and her quaint remarks
were very refreshing. He even thought that he would confide in her
after a fashion, and hint at a certain difficulty and complication
that had come into his life; he was rather desirous of knowing her
opinion; but he began in such a rou